Brewing up some research

A coffee enthusiast fascinated with its origins, Cal State Fullerton assistant professor of anthropology Sarah Grant became intrigued with the Vietnamese coffee industry after researching its history.

Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak, Vietnam - A Vietnamese lady rides her bike trough a coffee village in Dak Lak in this Nov. 9, 2005 file photo. Growing coffee at Buon Ma Thuot, in the Highlands of Dak Lak Provience Vietnam has increased over the last 10 years from being a very marginal industry to one that has positioned Vietnam as the second largest exporter of coffee in the world. All the world's largest roasters of coffee buy from the highlands of Vietnam.
Photo: GARY FRANCIS

Her interest in the Vietnamese coffee industry and the obstacles facing coffee farmers in the country has led her to 10 years of research in the topic.

“Ultimately my research isn’t just about the coffee -- it’s about Vietnamese in coffee-producing regions grappling with loss, opportunity, ambition, rapid economic development and subsequent stagnation and dreams about the future,” said Grant, who specializes in economic anthropology.

The focus of Grant’s research is how Vietnamese coffee growers are working to adapt to changing market conditions.

Her current research focuses on the third wave of the coffee industry -- high end, specialty coffee -- and its effect on the Vietnamese coffee industry.

While Vietnamese coffee farmers face typical agricultural problems including climate change, pests and agricultural diseases, they must also face the obstacle of finding a niche market for specialty coffee brewed outside of the traditional methods, she said.

Specialty coffee refers to coffee beans that are grown in a specific microclimate and soil chemistry. The coffee beans are carefully preserved, evenly dried, stored in proper temperature conditions, shipped, roasted, ground and brewed -- each step with its own set of meticulous guidelines.

Vietnamese coffee farmers are attempting to thrive in the specialty coffee industry while recognizing the challenges of producing it in Vietnam, including a massive time and emotional commitment, Grant said.

“(Specialty coffee beans) require different irrigation techniques,” she said. “They are different coffees. A lot of people don’t make that connection.”

Another obstacle lies in in translating “specialty coffee” into Vietnamese.

“The words translate, but the nuance is trickier to get across,” Grant said. “This is definitely another small but important challenge.”

While specialty coffee has taken off in the United States, it has yet to find widespread approval in Vietnam.

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, in 1993 nearly 3,000 specialty coffee shops existed in the United States. In 2013, that number had risen to more than 29,000.

Vietnamese coffee farmers dabbling in the specialty coffee industry are focusing on introducing their product to Vietnamese consumers first and then gradually shifting their mindset to exporting their product globally, Grant said.

This summer, Grant will travel to Vietnam to speak to female coffee farmers about their goals and struggles in the coffee industry as part of her goal to develop a Vietnamese chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance.

Persistent efforts to develop third-wave coffee in Vietnam speak “to a larger effort to engage with a global community while still maintaining a distinct Vietnamese-ness to it,” Grant said.

Vietnamese coffee growers, in the meantime, have long struggled because of a lack of branding for their coffee, including a lack of a visual representation.

While a number of countries, including the United States, import coffee with Vietnamese origins, “it is oftentimes unlabeled,” she said. “You rarely see that it has a picture of Vietnam on it.”

Visual representation through images, media coverage and advertisements could help large-scale companies “sell” Vietnam as a coffee-producing country, Grant said.

“Some great work has been in my field about the significance of coffee origins and branding but little has been done in the way of largely unbranded or semi-invisible coffees such as (coffee) coming out of Vietnam,” she said. “I have a gap to fill for sure.”

Grant lived in Dalat, Vietnam from 2010 to 2011 while gathering research.

She has visited the country numerous times to speak with local coffee farmers, government officials and certification agency representatives in several cities, including Buon Ma Thuot -- which is considered the coffee capital of Vietnam.

“I drank a lot of coffee while talking about coffee at cafes,” Grant said.

The time she spent at the cafes allowed her to observe what type of coffee is consumed in particular areas, as well as what social purpose coffee serves in the country.

Looking forward, Grant, who joined CSUF last fall, would like to include students in her research by developing a research project in Orange County’s Little Saigon.

Khoa Le

Source: OCRegister